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Antarctica in summer reveals itself as a frigid place warmed by the antics of penguins and the majesty of whales. A journey to the coldest, highest, driest place on Earth is worth the trek.
By CYNTHIA BOAL JANSSENS
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 28, 2000
One is never quite sure of the time in Antarctica. With the long days of the austral summer only allowing a few hours of darkness each night, with the other-worldly quality of the light, with the sky so clean, and with the huge ice shapes looming at sea, your mind is always a bit on tilt.
And isn't that how it should be when traveling to the ends of the Earth?
We certainly had an otherworldly feeling the night we sailed through the LeMaire Channel on the Danco Coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. This small pass, which cuts between mountains and glaciers, is noted for its beauty. The beginning of the channel is marked with a pair of peaks, grand and appropriate guideposts.
The bow of the M.S. Caledonian Star is full of passengers this evening -- dinner is over, and it is nearly 9:30 p.m. But the mouth of the channel is choked with ice; certainly passage will be impossible.
We should know better. Capt. Leig Skog is at the helm, an officer who has sailed to Antarctica at least 75 times in the past 20 years. He slides the bow forward and we gently nudge aside small ice floes, skirt around bigger icebergs, create our path in the night.
It takes more than an hour to work into the channel proper, but the light is lovely and we are captivated as we watch the sun slowly, every so slowly, drop toward the shimmering horizon. Cameras click and whirr but neither words nor images will never be able to totally capture that mystical moment.
Antarctica is not at the top of everyone's travel list. After all, it is a continent of extremes, said to be the coldest, the windiest, the highest, the driest of all the Earth's bodies. It can be forbidding and deadly, particularly in the deep of winter.
But Antarctica has another face. A joyous face that presents itself each summer when penguins and other shore birds come ashore by the millions to lay eggs and raise their young during the few short months allotted to them. The time when whales, seals and dolphins come to the surface. And when even people venture down in own sailboats to spend the season.
Antarctica is a fascinating place to visit.
Bill Bingham of Naples, Fla., thinks so. This was his third trip to Antarctica and he says he returned yet again to share the experience with his wife Mary. "I've always thought that this was the most amazing trip that I've ever taken and I just wanted Mary to see it, too."
For those of us on our first visit, however, it was series of adventures. First, there is the process of getting there. From Miami we had to fly overnight to Santiago, Chile, then make another five-hour flight the next day to Punta Arenas, at the southern tip of Chile, before finally boarding the ship. All of this was accomplished with almost no trouble, thanks to the arrangements made by Lindblad Expeditions.
No sooner were we aboard when we were told of a deviation in our itinerary: Another small ship had damaged its propeller, forcing it to cancel a trip, and we were going to take on some of its passengers. To accomplish this, we sailed through the Beagle Channel to Ushuaia, Argentina, where we boarded 54 passengers who had been diverted from Clipper Cruise Lines' Adventurer.
We now had a 110 passengers aboard but despite being chock-full, everything went smoothly. Well, except some boisterous seas as we passed Cape Horn. The waters at the Cape can be extremely rough, but to get to Antarctica you have to pass the Cape and then head southwest across Drake's Passage .
To be sure, the Calendonian Star is well-suited to this journey, fully stabilized and ice-reinforced, and it takes heavy seas well. Yet while our trip was relatively smooth, there were some large swells that caused some passengers to be seasick for a day and night.
As soon as we neared the Antarctic Peninsula and calmer waters, everyone was up and out on deck. After all, we all had something better to do than lay a-moaning: We had to see penguins!
First by the hundreds, then by the thousands and then by the hundreds of thousands we saw them. But no matter how many times we encountered them, whether on snow, rock or sand, we found them fascinating.
I never thought that I could so enjoy watching little black-and-white birds. They would waddle. They would seem to argue with each other. They would flop on their bellies to "toboggan" in the snow. They would squawk at anyone approaching their young and, when their mates returned from feeding, they would greet them with an elaborate ritual of bobbing-and-weaving and calling.
And they were unafraid of humans.
We encountered seven varieties of penguins on this trip and soon learned to identify them: The chinstraps (black strip around throat), the gentoos (orange beaks), the Adelies (white around the eye), the macaronis (with golden plumage) and in the Falkland Islands we saw Magellanics (white stripes), rockhoppers (yellow tufts above red eyes) and kings (larger, orange on heads and breasts).
Our seven days in Antarctica were spent mostly exploring the islands around the Antarctic Peninsula, where the weather is most temperate and the largest penguin rookeries are found. Typically, we would have a "landing" each morning and each afternoon. We would bundle ourselves up in our waterproof outerwear (each passenger is given a red parka), our wellies (rubber boots) and warm headgear and we would be loaded into Zodiacs (inflatable, motorized boats) that whisked us to shore.
No time was ever wasted: As soon as we would enter a harbor, the Zodiacs would be dropped over the side with naturalists aboard who would travel in to determine where passengers would land. By the time the ship was anchored, the loading platform was down and ready to offload us. Even in rough seas, the capable crew loaded people of all abilities and ages in and out of these boats like pros.
And when the landing areas were too rough for people with walking limitations, the crew took them on sightseeing rides along the shore.
There are no towns or people living as residents of Antarctica. In 1959, a treaty was signed that dedicates the continent to world peace. However, there are a number of government stations and we visited several of these, most notably the United States' Palmer Station (scientific research) and the historic station at Port Lockroy, a formal British naval station that is now a museum.
The key to making all of this happen was a superb staff of naturalists and lecturers, under the direction of expedition leader Matt Drennan, who has been to Antarctica more than 85 times. He's married with a young family now, so he only leads a few trips a year and we were fortunate to have him.
On sea days and between landings, the naturalists presented slide presentations on all matter of subjects, and we never missed a one. They lectured about penguins, seals, seabirds, whales, about living and working at Antarctic research stations, about such polar explorers as Roald Amundsen and Otto Nordenskjold. The naturalists told us about the super-continent of Gondwanaland (which once encompassed India, Australia, Africa, South America and Antarctica) and about the effects of global warming.
In the comfortable bar/lounge, there are four large televisions, used to show documentary videos such as In the Freezer, narrated by David Attenborough, and another with footage from the ill-fated expedition of Capt. Ernest Shackleton and the H.M.S. Endurance.
The library aboard was just as it should be: paneled in dark wood, shelves packed with informative books, with deep chairs for curling up in during a good read, and a hot cup of tea of coffee whenever you needed. Books are important on a trip like this as there is not a lot of do between meals, lectures and landings other than napping and reading.
It seemed everyone did plenty of both as the rhythm of the ship was friendly and restful. By the end of the first week, we knew probably half the passengers by name and were meeting more each day. One, open, seating for dinner facilitates this kind of mixing.
Meals on the Caledonian Star were exceptional. One does not go to sea for two weeks on an expedition ship expecting much more than good grub, but the galley staff outdid themselves and we had gourmet meals throughout, with entrees such as grilled yellow-fin tuna and range veal piccata.
Much of our time was spent out on deck gazing at the lovely ice forms around us, or tucked inside the bridge where we were out of the wind and could visit with the officers.
From Antarctica, our ship returned via the Falkland Islands, where it offloaded theClipper passengers, and then we spent three days exploring the flora and fauna of this archipelago. Naturalist Allan White proved to be exuberant about this homeland: "Welcome to my world!" he announced at the beginning of his talk about the Falklands War.
While the temperatures in Antarctica had hovered around freezing, the weather here was downright balmy. We were able to explore the tidy town of Stanley, go on hikes, get close to several albatross rookeries and meet a number of families who live "at camp" ... which is pretty much anywhere but Stanley (most islands are owned and inhabited by only one family).
We disembarked in Ushuaia, Argentina -- the southernmost town on Earth. It had been a comprehensive trip and not at all exhausting. Not only had I set foot on my seventh continent but I'd also bought a dress for my granddaughter at a handicraft market in Chile, I'd munched on scones in the kitchen of a home on Carcass Island in the Falklands, I'd waltzed with a penguin or two. And I saw ice formations that looked like spun candy.
We are all but visitors to Antarctica. And any trip there will make one passionate about keeping it that way.
Cynthia Boal Janssens is a free-lance writer living in Northern Michigan who specializes in small ship cruises. Contact her at cindy@cbjanssens.com.
Antarctic cruising: Summer -- and the cruising season -- in Antarctica is from December through February. Some trips include the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Orkneys. Book now for the 2000-2001 season. Discounts are generally available on the first sailing of each season and for early bookings (usually by June 30).
There were 16 ships in Antarctica last season. Except for the Marco Polo and the Rotterdam, all were small ships, most carrying under 125 passengers. The premier companies -- with the top captains and guides -- are Abercrombie & Kent (the Explorer) and Lindblad Expeditions (the M.S. Caledonian Star), and they are also the most expensive.
Other companies offering Antarctica cruises are:
Abercrombie & Kent, (800) 323-7308, http://www.abercrombiekent.com
Clipper Cruise Lines, (800) 325-0010, http://www.clippercruise.com
Orient Lines, (800) 333-7300, http://www.orientlines.com
Society Expeditions, (800) 548-8669, http://www.societyexpeditions.com
Quark Expeditions, (800) 356-5699, http://www.quark-expeditions.com
Marine Expeditions, (800) 263-9147, http://www.marineex.com
Radisson Seven Seas, (800) 333-3333, http://www.rssc.com
The M.S. Caledonian Star carries up to 110 passengers in 62 outside cabins. There is one open seating for meals. The ship is not wheelchair-accessible, although people using canes seem to manage nicely.
Lindblad Expeditions typically offers three itineraries of 15, 19 and 25 days. Prices for the 19-day trip were from $8,980 to $16,200 per person, including flights between Punta Arenas and Ushuaia. International airfare is additional.
For more information: Contact Lindblad Expeditions at (800) 397-3348, http://www.expeditions.com, or contact a travel agent.